When to use this article
You are preparing your first PayGap upload.
You are fixing validation or upload errors.
You are checking whether your employee file matches the PayGap data specification.
You want to avoid common issues such as duplicate employee IDs, text-formatted dates, or incorrect FTE handling.
Step-by-step guide
Use these resources to help you prepare your file before upload:
Download the Master Data Template here – includes the full data specification and an empty data template to help you collect and prepare your data for upload to PayGap.
1. Use one row per employee record
Each row should represent one employee record.
Employee ID must be present in every row. A blank cell in the employee ID column will cause the upload to fail.
Employee ID must be unique in the file.
When uploading files, it’s important that it always contains all active employees.
2. Complete all mandatory fields
The upload file must include all mandatory fields defined in the data specification. Without these fields, the upload will not be processed.
Examples of mandatory fields include:
Employee ID
Gender
Base Pay
The full list of mandatory fields is available in the Master Template.
If data for any mandatory field is not available, enter “Unknown” instead of leaving the cell blank.
3. Format date fields as real dates in Excel
Date fields must be stored as actual Excel dates, not as text.
Date fields (e.g., Date of Birth or Employment Start Date, if used) must be formatted as dates.
A date can look correct on screen and still fail if Excel stores it as text.
A simple check is to apply a filter to the date column and confirm that Excel recognizes the values as dates.
Use the column filter in Excel to verify that dates are recognized as dates and grouped by Year → Month → Day (as shown in the illustration below).
If the filter displays individual full dates instead (as shown on the right), the values are likely stored as text and should be converted to a proper date format before uploading the file.
4. Use the correct format for categorical fields
Use the value format defined in the PayGap data specification for each categorical field. Below are some examples; the full list of allowed values can be found in the Data Specification.
Field | Use this format | Example |
Gender | 0 = Unknown, 1 = Male, 2 = Female, 9 = Other. | 1 or Male |
Pay Period | Use the supported categorical values: HOUR, DAY, WEEK, TWOWEEKS, HALF_MONTH, MONTH, TWO_MONTHS, QUARTER, HALF_YEAR, YEAR. | YEAR |
Currency | Use ISO 4217 currency codes. | DKK |
Example: If Base Pay is an annual amount, the Pay Period must be YEAR.
5. Decide how you will handle FTE before upload
Use only one of these approaches:
Upload contractual or non-standardized pay values and include FTE Rate.
Upload pay values that are already adjusted to full-time equivalent and leave FTE Rate blank.
Important: If you standardize salaries to full-time equivalent in your file, do not upload FTE Rate. If you upload the standard FTE Rate field, PayGap will standardize the salary for you.
If you already upload standardized salary values but still want to keep the FTE Rate information in the system, you can add it as a custom field instead. Please refer to the article on how to create custom fields for instructions. The field name must be different from “FTE Rate” (any other name can be used).
FTE Rate is a value between 0 and 1. Example: 0.88
If FTE Rate is not provided, employee salaries are assumed to be given on a full-time-basis
Example:
Employee salary: 50,000
FTE Rate: 0.5 (half-time)
If the salary in your file is the actual part-time salary:
· Base Pay: 50,000
· FTE Rate: 0.5
PayGap will standardize the salary to full-time equivalent:
50,000 ÷ 0.5 = 100,000 (standardized salary)
In this case, you should upload the FTE Rate field so PayGap can perform the standardization.
If the salary in your file is already standardized to full-time equivalent:
· Base Pay: 100,000
· Do not upload FTE Rate
In this case, the salary is already standardized and PayGap will not perform any additional adjustment.
If you still want to keep the FTE information in the system, you can upload it as a custom field, for example “Contract FTE”.
6. Keep Base Pay and other pay components aligned to the same pay period
Base Pay should use the same pay period as the other compensation elements you upload per employee.
If Base Pay is annual, keep the other uploaded compensation values annual as well. Similarly, a base pay given in a per-hour format, the associated compensation elements must also be given in per-hour.
Short Term Incentives, Long Term Incentives, Sales Bonus, Profit Share, Allowances, and Pension should use the same pay period as Base Pay.
Using annual amounts can make the file easier to manage when you upload multiple compensation elements.
If you have employees with different pay periods, make sure that each employee has the same pay period for all that employee’s pay components.
Example:
If Base Pay is provided as an annual amount:
· Base Pay: 80,000 (annual)
· Short Term Incentive: 8,000 (annual)
· Allowance: 2,000 (annual)
All values use the same annual pay period, so they are aligned.
Incorrect example:
· Base Pay: 80,000 (annual)
· Allowance: 700 (monthly)
In this case the values use different pay periods, which can lead to incorrect comparisons. Convert the monthly value to an annual amount before uploading:
700 × 12 = 8,400 (annual).
7. Review Legal Entity
You can upload all legal entities in one file or upload one legal entity at a time.
The first time you upload a new legal entity, PayGap will ask you to identify its country. This ensures the platform knows what regulations apply to that legal entity.
8. Determine your Location logic
Location is a text field. You can use employee's office or work location.
Keep Location values consistent across the file – meaning if you use office location, this should be done for all employees.
This field is commonly used when companies differentiate compensation based on location (for example Capital City vs Other Locations)
9. Check numerical fields
When adding data to numerical fields, make sure that all values in the column are numerical. The file upload will fail if there are text elements in any of the cells.
How to recognize numbers stored as text
In Excel, numbers stored as text often appear left-aligned in the cell, while properly formatted numbers are right-aligned.
In the illustration, the value 150000 is aligned differently from the other values, which indicates it may be stored as text instead of a numeric value. Convert such cells to numbers before uploading the file.
8. Run a final check before upload
Before you upload the file, check the following:
No duplicate Employee IDs.
No blank values in mandatory fields.
Date fields are stored as dates, not text.
Currency should use ISO 4217 codes.
Base Pay and other numeric fields contain numbers, not text strings.
Gender, Type of Employment, Pay Period, and Currency follow the required format.
It is also recommended to use column filters to review values and check for any unusual or inconsistent entries (e.g., unexpected values, typos, or missing data).
If salaries are already FTE-adjusted in the file, do not upload FTE Rate.
Optional grouping fields such as Business Unit, Division, Department, Job Family, Job Group, and Career Track are more flexible, but they should still be used consistently.
Common questions and troubleshooting
The upload failed even though the file looks complete.
If the upload fails, the system will display an error message explaining the issue and indicate the row where the problem was detected. The most common issues include blank Employee IDs, missing mandatory fields, or dates stored as text instead of a valid date format.
My dates look correct, but the system still rejects them.
Excel may be storing the values as text. Reformat the column as a date and verify it through the filter view.
The salaries look wrong after import.
Check whether the file already contained full-time equivalent pay and included FTE Rate. That combination can lead to an extra standardization step.
Can I upload more than one legal entity in one file?
Yes. the import can be done either as one file for all legal entities or per legal entity.
What should I do if Job Title or Location is missing?
Use “Unknown” instead of leaving the cell blank.
What should Weekly Hours represent if I use that field?
Use the hours that represent a full-time week for the relevant legal entity, country, or role, rather than assuming one standard value fits everyone.
One of our employees have been terminated, how do I delete them?
You upload a new file for the legal entity the employee belongs to, where the terminated employee is not a part of the file. This will automatically terminate the employee’s employment, and the employee will be excluded from all future analysis. You will still be able to see the employee in the platform, as we store the historical analysis for compliance and audit purposes.